A NEW booking system at the tip appears to be working well for those who have been lucky enough to use the service so far.

Residents hoping to use Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRC) across the county have been required to book their slot in advance as of Monday, June 15.

The move was made by Hampshire County Council (HCC) in response to lengthy queues at a number of sites, including Andover’s Scott Close facility – but there were no such queues during the first day of the new system’s rollout.

Just before 9am, the site’s new opening time, there was a very small queue of five cars waiting to enter the facility.

A few hours later, just one car could be seen queuing outside the entrance, as was the case when our reporter returned in the early afternoon.

It marks a stark change from the scene during the tip’s opening week, when queues of almost half a kilometre were seen and wait times of over 90 minutes reported.

Those leaving the facility on Monday also noted how straightforward the new system was.

One man described the service as “very good – very, very good!” and noted that they “got straight in” upon arriving at the site.

Others said they were pleased to be faced with no queues, while one woman was particularly enthusiastic about the experience.

“It was a breeze,” she said. “I wasn’t expecting it to be so easy.

“I actually didn’t realise you had to book, but they very kindly let me in anyway.”

Staff also remarked at how smoothly things had run but added that it had been a quiet day.

Users now wishing to use any HWRC across the county must book in advance via the county council’s website. They are also only allowed to visit the site once per week.

Slots are made available 48 hours in advance. When our reporter logged on at around 8am on Monday morning, all of Wednesday's slots were still available. However, by mid-morning the day was fully booked.

It suggests that while those able to access the facility have had positive experiences, there could still be a backlog of customers waiting to gain access.

HCC says it anticipates 30,000 booking slots will be made available across the county each week.

In unveiling the booking system, the council said that the primary aim was to reduce traffic and queues at facilities across the county.

Councillor Rob Humby, deputy leader and executive member for economy, transport and environment at HCC, added: “Once the booking system is in place, we will be able to manage the number of vehicles coming to HWRCs at all times, so should see an end to this unacceptable level of traffic queuing.

“We’ll also have confidence that waste vehicles will be able to enter HWRCs to service the bins without getting stuck in traffic which means we can keep the sites open for longer each day.”